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Quoted: Second vote for Mistborn. And these. https://www.goodreads.com/series/49134-the-legend-of-drizzt View Quote my favorites Attached File eta: the demon wars trilogy is my favorite of his - and drizzt isn't even in those i did try to read the newer "the highwayman" and quit halfway through because it was terrible. |
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Larry Correia's Saga of the Forgotten Warrior series.
Or anything else he's written (Monster Hunter International, Grimnoir Chronicles, Dead Six, etc). Kharn |
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Read Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb. If you like it (I did), there are more books in the series.
The Wheel of Time series is excellent and an amazing world. There is a period in the middle where the books get slow and a bit of a slog, but they improve again later. All are worth reading, even if slow in places. |
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Out of your list.
Highly recommend WoT though RJ had some…filler pages (or books) for sure. Stormlight isn’t complete yet so beware. I got introduced when only 3 of them were out years ago. Still I wait. But it’s not GRRM level of wait. It’s good, but I’d have to reread them to even speak towards it explaining it. Can’t speak for your last one. Not familiar at all. Mistborn is really good as others have mentioned. Anything to do with forgotten realms, Drizzt, Bruenor et al is just ok IMHO. Whiny cunt is accurate. There are an awful lot of them though |
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If you like books that are in a series, check out William R Forstchen.
I have read a number of his series and they are all very good. They average 6 to 8 books per series. The topics very, and are almost always sci-fi related. They deal a lot in time travel and alternate timeline plots. For instance, if Hitler had won World War II, or if the south had won the Civil War. There is one series I thought was very good where a Roman Legion goes through a wormhole and winds up on another planet and becomes mercenaries. He has written quite a few series and I’ve read most of them and they have all been good. |
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Does Larry's Saga of the Forgotten Warrior count as High Fantasy?
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Quoted: Science fiction I recommend the Red Rising series. Class warfare and whole planet battles. First book is kind of hunger games ish but after that the whole universe opens up. 5 books out now waiting on the final book to come out next year. View Quote I second this one. On the third second book now. Really liking it. |
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Quoted: Dragonlance series are good, lighter than LOTR, but there are now dozens so if you like the world you have a lot to read. View Quote I enjoyed those and the Sword of Shannara series long ago but I understand there are way more of them now. ETA Cross Time Engineer seemed pretty good when I read it like 25 years ago. Some polish engineer goes back in time and realizes the Mongol hordes are coming in 10 years so he slowly introduces technology so they will be ready for them. I think it is a trilogy. |
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The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant
The Belgariad The Book of Swords Series Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser collection of short stories - can't remember the name of the book |
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The Black Company series from Glen Cook. I have read the entire series several times and listened to it on audible as well. I also enjoyed the Joe Abacrombie series , The First Law
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Dragonlance or piers anthony xanth series is great also his immortality series.
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Quoted: Second vote for Mistborn. And these. https://www.goodreads.com/series/49134-the-legend-of-drizzt View Quote |
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The Mallorean and The Belgariad are always mentioned for Eddings, but I suspect many here would like The Elenium.
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Sub'd
I can also recommend: Glen Cook: The Black Company Joe Abercrombie, series mentioned already I can't recommend: Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight series. I haven't finished book 3 and honestly wish I hadn't read/listened to the first two. I've been taking notes for series to get into. I like wandering around in Half Price Books looking for cheesy fantasy book covers, but hardly ever buy anything. That is how I got hold of The Black Company, though. |
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Quoted: I second this one. On the third second book now. Really liking it. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Science fiction I recommend the Red Rising series. Class warfare and whole planet battles. First book is kind of hunger games ish but after that the whole universe opens up. 5 books out now waiting on the final book to come out next year. I second this one. On the third second book now. Really liking it. red rising is tier 1 space opera. blends roman and greek types with science fiction, including super vikings and similar. really screams to be made into a hbo/netflix multi-season show. |
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Wheel of Time; it's worth sticking with the series, though a bit slow in the middle. Jordan is the only fiction author I have ever bothered to eventually meet and obtain an autographed copy of his book.
Dragonlance Chronicles; the early books are excellent, and the core characters are some of the best fantasy archetypes out there. The Black Company; kinda blew my mind when I first read the series. Not many books with as much grey morality as this series. Gotrek and Felix; if you like anything about the Olde World of Warhammer Fantasy, this is hands-down the best series. The development of their characters throughout the series is probably why they are some of my favorites. |
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Quoted: Science fiction I recommend the Red Rising series. Class warfare and whole planet battles. First book is kind of hunger games ish but after that the whole universe opens up. 5 books out now waiting on the final book to come out next year. View Quote +1 Good stuff, I need to start the 4th book |
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Dune - Frank Herbert
The Hyperion Cantos - Dan Simmons. and Wholesale Slaughter series (mechs, space/future stuff) by @rikwriter |
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I liked The Sword of Truth series but some of the books kinda drone on a little bit at times.
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Another vote for Red Rising, fantastic.
The Gentleman Bastards series. Been a long time, but The Eternal Champion books were very good. Elric was my favorite. A Song of Fire and Ice (Game of Thrones) series are some of the best I've ever read, but it appears it may never have a last book, and if it ends like the HBO series, then, yuck. Still worth reading though, really, really good. The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant |
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I almost regret starting this thread. There are so many to choose from.
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Deathstalker series by Simon R Green. Swords and superpowers in a sci-fi settings. Over the top heroes and villains but some deep subjects are explored.
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I'm 3 books into thr Malazan:Book of the Fallen series and no regrets.
It's been great so far. Not exactly high fantasy, but William Forstchen was mentioned. His Lost Regiment series is pretty good. Civil War Infantry regiment gets on a ship, gets caught in a storm and ends up somewhere else. Pretty good read with one caveat, stay away from the last book "Down to the Sea". The series ends with the previous book and he attempts to play the "next generation" card. The book is 90% exposition and introducing new characters. That was 14 years ago, and he hasn't written the next one so it's a waste. |
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Quoted: I almost regret starting this thread. There are so many to choose from. View Quote That's my conclusion. I started reading the thread, and occasionally thought, Hey, I worked on that series ... with that author ... on that book. (I was doing freelance copyediting in the '80s-'90s, and Bantam, Tor, Random House, etc. were sending me manuscripts. A lot of SciFi/fantasy. Zebra for men's adventure and bosom-heaving romance.) It's been a fun thread for me. But really there's been little convergence on any one series or author, and I find that pretty cool. |
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Quoted: The problem with Drizzt is he is a whiny cunt. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Second vote for Mistborn. And these. https://www.goodreads.com/series/49134-the-legend-of-drizzt The problem with Drizzt is he is a whiny cunt. You take that back! |
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It's Sci-fy, but kind of medieval. Have you read "Red Rising" series? It's really good.
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The Wheel of Time. Best series ever. I want to love the Malazan world and it is good (Coltaine-Chain of Dogs!) but WOT is better.
Duty is heavier than a mountain. Death is lighter than a feather. |
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Quoted: my favorites https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304395/IMG_20240725_205150317_jpg-3277062.JPG eta: the demon wars trilogy is my favorite of his - and drizzt isn't even in those i did try to read the newer "the highwayman" and quit halfway through because it was terrible. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted: Quoted: Second vote for Mistborn. And these. https://www.goodreads.com/series/49134-the-legend-of-drizzt my favorites https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/304395/IMG_20240725_205150317_jpg-3277062.JPG eta: the demon wars trilogy is my favorite of his - and drizzt isn't even in those i did try to read the newer "the highwayman" and quit halfway through because it was terrible. I loved all those. Couldn't wait until the next came out. Great story. |
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Malazan Book of the Fallen is probably the most wide ranging and epic of anything mentioned here. The magic system is cool and there are plenty of twists and turns. There are also follow on, prequel, and companion novels since the series has two authors. It’s at least a years worth of reading.
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Also here to recommend the Raymond E. Feist Riftwar books. There are about 30 or so.
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No one has recommended Piers Anthony’s books yet? Wtf.
Nevermind. I see some has. Apparently not ironically. But they also recommend Shanarra, which I thought was kinda cheese when I was a preteen. While I liked Dragonlance at that age, it was still pretty cliche. Reminds me of Archie Comics a bit, frankly. My sister had me listen to Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself trilogy. Maybe not full-on high fantasy, but in the ballpark. Lots of grimacing though. Especially noteworthy when the reader pronounced it gri-mace-ing instead of gri-mah-sing. Funny how authors can overuse words. Part of the reason Frankenstein sucked so bad. Well, a small part. The whole thing was a wretchedly written wretched story about a wretch that had to wretchedly suffer a wrenched life and constantly lamented his wrenched state of wretched wretchedness. Fuck you Mary Shelley. I don’t care if you were only 19, the book still sucked. |
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many good recs. if you'd be interested in LOTR told from sauron's perspective, check out the sundering by carey.
the fionavar tapestry by kay is an interesting retelling in a portal fantasy framework. |
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Malazan book of the fallen is amazing.
Some parts are a total slog but it's worth it. It's so deep I had to take notes, but the characters are well fleshed out and have agency that you don't often see. |
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The Codex Alera by Jim Butcher. The Dresden Files by the same author.
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I just finished the Stormlight Archive and have the 5th book preordered for December.
It’s my 2nd favorite series second to Tolkien. Mistborn is also a great series and I’m reading the 2nd era Mistborn right now. The Stormlight Archive goes hard though. It’s a massive world, cool magic system, thousands of years of lore, and by the end ties into Sanderson entire universe called the Cosmere and becomes bigger than just the books in the series. The characters are great. Some are annoying and bratty, some are broken, and some are just epic douchebags. But they’re all very well written and interesting. |
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Quoted: Science fiction I recommend the Red Rising series. Class warfare and whole planet battles. First book is kind of hunger games ish but after that the whole universe opens up. 5 books out now waiting on the final book to come out next year. View Quote Second the Red Rising series by Pierce Brown. So damn good |
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I really tried to like the Shannara series as I read the original trilogy as a teen. Tried the whole thing (as it was then) about 15 years ago and gave up. Just seemed too similar to LOTR in spots and then seemed to have no end. I think Brooks finally did but I bet I had at least a dozen to go. Immersion is one thing; excessive is another.
I’d like to try the complete Conan series. Those are shorter stories but you also have to figure out if you want to read the fill in stories since the original author (Howard) killed himself. https://conan.fandom.com/wiki/Chronology |
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As suggested a few times, the David Eddings books are great.
Stainless steel rat is not high fantasy, but a great read never the less. Try the Dragonbone Chair series by Tad Williams for a good long read, high fantasy for sure. |
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Quoted: I really tried to like the Shannara series as I read the original trilogy as a teen. Tried the whole thing (as it was then) about 15 years ago and gave up. Just seemed too similar to LOTR in spots and then seemed to have no end. I think Brooks finally did but I bet I had at least a dozen to go. Immersion is one thing; excessive is another. I’d like to try the complete Conan series. Those are shorter stories but you also have to figure out if you want to read the fill in stories since the original author (Howard) killed himself. https://conan.fandom.com/wiki/Chronology View Quote robert e howard is my other favorite - i've got all his stuff on audible....those get the most use when on road trips bran mak morn series is my favorite from those, but all the conan stories were great too, and a lot more of them to choose from. |
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